Cuushe

Cuushe fuses gossamer singing with layered sonic backdrops, threading dream pop, ambient haze, and rhythmic pulses into a hypnotic, perpetually shifting alloy. Mayuko Hitotsuyanagi, the project’s singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, channels a blend of Eastern and Western sensibilities across releases such as her 2009 debut Red Rocket Telepathy, a reflection of her itinerant existence that nevertheless grew more singular with each subsequent outing. The path veered toward lush fantasy on the widely praised 2013 album Butterfly Case, crested in pop immediacy with the 2015 Night Lines EP, and sustained its quiet authority through the understated reflections on lucidity that define 2020’s Waken.

Raised in Kyoto, Hitotsuyanagi studied piano and improvised often yet only began composing original material much later. After periods in Osaka and Tokyo she relocated to Europe; while based in London and Berlin she first explored recording software in 2008 at a friend’s urging, drawing inspiration from Boards of Canada and L’Altra. The resulting dreamy, downtempo electronic pop aligned naturally with Japanese imprint flau, which issued Cuushe’s debut album Red Rocket Telepathy in 2009. She then joined labelmate Geskia in the duo Neon Cloud, whose first EP Knit appeared late in 2011. Cuushe resurfaced the following year with the expansive triple-EP set Girl You Know That I Am Here but the Dream, a meditation on dreaming whose production came from aus (flau founder Yasuhiko Fukuzono) and whose remixes included contributions from Julia Holter, Motion Sickness of Time Travel, Blackbird Blackbird, and additional artists.

For the second album, 2013’s Butterfly Case, Hitotsuyanagi again worked with aus and Geskia while incorporating dance and R&B accents into her fragile aesthetic. Now resettled in Japan, she supported Grouper and Julianna Barwick on their local tours. Neon Cloud reemerged in 2014 with the Scar EP, and during the same stretch Cuushe lent guest vocals to the Boats, Populous, and Kidkanevil. Her trajectory continued toward brighter pop on the 2015 Night Lines EP, which preceded two collaborations with Iglooghost: “Gold Coat,” featured on 2015’s Chinese Nü Yr, and “Infinite Mint,” included on 2017’s Neō Wax Bloom. That year another musician, Ametsub (Akihito Saitoh), began stalking and harassing Hitotsuyanagi and her label; he was later found guilty of burglary and handed a three-year probation sentence. After a period of recovery, Cuushe resurfaced with FEM, a partnership with Tangents drummer Evan Dorrian whose first single “Light” arrived in June 2020. That November she delivered her third full-length, Waken, which contained some of her most sharply etched and dance-oriented work.